July 2008
By your SBAA running shorter reporter, Kevin Young

The Track and Field Oly Trials Running Love-Fest in Eugene, OR was June 27 to July 7, 8 days of competition with two middle rest days. It was my 3rd trials in Eugene after attending in '76 and '80. There was a lot going on for runners! Every morning different running stores around Eugene would host group runs such as a 5K along the Williamette River on Pre's trails, it was so hot that morning you could barely jog. I ran with the Brooks team one morning and lasted 6 and a half minutes before being dropped (but they provided breakfast after). We walked up to Pre's Rock one morning to find a bus full of Nike employees there. There was a heat wave the first 4 days, with smoke from nearbye wildfires making it hazy, it cooled off later in the trials. Our seats were at the 30m mark, first row, looking down at the athletes and witnessing their agony and ecstasy at the finish line. I can email you a pdf file of the results, with splits, from Track and Field News, upon your request.

Next to the track was a giant pavilion, open to the public without charge, where you could visit booths, drink beer and watch the action live in the stadium on two huge video screens. The Nike tent was doing a brisk business in T-shirts. In addition the two streets adjacent to the track also had booths and food open to the public. Running stars who had made the team would sit and sign autographs and posters provided by Nike and Adidas. One day Kevin Young was there (400m hurdles WR holder) so Kevin Young got an autograph from Kevin Young. Power was provided by festival-goers pedaling stationary bikes in a big tent in front of a live video screen of the track, the Trials was thus self sufficient for power. They had youth meets on the track during the two middle days off. A kid's section allowed them to run and jump. You could make pins of your favorite athletes.

Posted everywhere were trials mottos: "There are tougher ways to make it to Beijing, like digging". "You're lucky if you are good enough to lose here" "Home of the hardest team to make" "Where you are fired for being .03 seconds late" "All out or Left out". "Run like hell today or feel like hell tomorrow". "Because nothing hurts worse than 4th". "They don't give world champions a free pass"."Train like you're #4, race like you're #1". Pre was everywhere, in books and videos, at the rock, on Pre's trails, on posters at the festival.

There was a 'Distance Legends Workshop' one morning (track sessions were 3-7pm or 7-10pm so days were free), where (can you name what they did?) Bob Schul, Don Bowden, Wes Santee, Jim Grelle, Jim Beatty and Bill Dellinger all spoke and signed posters (I got a few to give away at the SBAA banquet) (you gotta be over 60 to appreciate these guys). Schul won the 5000m gold in '64, Dellinger won the bronze, Beatty first runner under 4 minutes for the mile indoors, Grelle American Record for the mile 3;55, Bowden first American miler under 4, Santee ran 4:00.5 just before Bannister broke 4... Also on the poster but not present were George Young, Billy Mills, Horace Ashenfelter, Gerry Lindgren and Jim Ryun. Schul was full of stories about coach Igloi and his commanding officer Max Truex, brother of SBAA member Don Truex. Tracy Smith, 11th at Tokyo, lived and trained alone in Bishop, CA, running solo repeat miles at North Lake at 9800 feet and 18 mile drive from his house. Looking at these guys, you would never think they were world class runners at one time, unless they were in shorts. Check out www.distancelegends.com

Some race highlights: you can see most of these races just go to www.youtube.com and type in the name of the race you want (I could only find Hasay's final 1500m not the semis though). Ian Dobson, who I met in San Diego, made the team in the 5000m, running a great race behind Lagat and Tegenkamp. Tyson Gay's 9.68 wind-aided, and his spectacular jump when his muscle cramped in the 200m were highlights. His was not the only muscle cramp that occurred on the track in front of us. Four women tumbling to the ground in the 800m semis, they all were let in the final so they had 12 running. Laura Roesler is just a 10th grader and she ran 2:04 in the quarterfinals to qualify for the semifinals, where she ran 2:06.8 for 8th. Chanelle Price, who ran 2:01.6 this year, the 2nd fastest HS time ever, ran 2:05.9 in the quarterfinals to not advance. Nicole Teter missed making the team by one tenth of a second.

The men's 800 had 3 Oregonians make the final. Christian Smith especially barely made it through the heats, Nick Symmonds was favored to win by T&F News because of his 3rd gear down the stretch, and Wheating, just a sophomore (age 20) from U of O, who is 6'5", got in from his specialty: coming around the final curve wide to slingshot to the front using huge loping strides (he was 2nd in the NCAA). These 3 are going against Khadevis Robinson (past Olympian and national champion), Lamong (from Somalia, made the 1500m team), USC's (from Lompoc HS) Duane Solomon and others. Wheating's only been running 3 years, he was a soccer player, his PR was 1:52 two years ago and just 1:48 last year. Smith was injured most of the year and had one of the slowest of the 30 qualifiers for the 800m trials. 20,000 in the stands, the gun goes off, Robinson takes the lead and at 400m the 3 Oregonians are in the last 3 places. With everyone trying to get into position for the stretch run, by 600m they were bunched together with Symmonds boxed in, Wheating coming wide, and Smith near the back on the inside. A spot opened up for Symmonds and he 'hopped' from lane one to the outside with 150m to go, then turned on the afterburners, and passed the whole field to lead the rest of the race and win easily. Meanwhile Wheating came around the field slowly on the outside, running wide around the curve, and kept up his momentum to pass the field to take 2nd. Smith was still boxed in around the turn but found lane one opening up down the stretch. Still ahead of him were Robinson to his right and then Lomong. As they approached the line Smith was still behind. I've seen this over and over on the big video screens: Smith was behind with 2 steps to go, but he threw his body across the line in a dive at the last possible instant to try to get to the line first. Robinson sensed this was happening so he threw himself across the line too! The 2 of them dove across the line, ending up in fetal positions for 30 seconds or so while the crowd roared. While they lied there the results came up on the screen: Symmonds PR 1:44.1, Wheating PR 1:45.03, Smith PR 1:45.47, Robinson 1:45.53, Lomong 1:45.58, Solomon 1:45.78. The 3 from Oregon made the team: the crowd went crazy! Later the three showed up on stage and the crowd watched slo mo replays of the dive on the big screens. They interviewed each Oregonian while the mostly Oregon crowd hooted and hollered. It was a running love-fest of Olympic proportions.

I watched Stephanie Rothstein, a recent UCSB grad, do very well in the 10,000m. She ran a real smart race, passing people the whole 2nd half of the race, to take 12th in 33:22. She later won the Butte to Butte 10K road race July 4th. A roar erupted from the crowd when Amy Begley, an Oregonian, made the team and got the A qualifier by less than 2 seconds. Anna Willard set the AR in the steeplechase, but she is still 30 seconds behind the Russians.

MORE OLYMPIC TRIALS RESULTS are available at the USATF site.